speaking as a member of the public on this you. and as i 7-11 owner i am very well familiar with the coffee business. this is a second time appearing in front of this board. and the first case i was an appellant, and this board at that point fully recognizes that food trucks in the financial district is detrimental to the existing establishments. first of all about coffee, i would like to tell the board by experience. coffee is a very high margin item. all other products that any restaurant sells, has very high food costs, meats, cheeses, vegetables coffee in a lot of cases does contribute over all to the profitability to a small

restaurant. having said that, i will ask you once again to please consider what is right and what is wrong in realistic terms. as a decision may impact the lively hoods of some of my restaurant owners and we are all operating under the worst economic conditions known to us after the great depression. by over subsidizing food trucks, the city is attempting to can bolize the existing food establishments. that is not what free enterprise stands for. >> the principals of free enterprise that our nation is built upon do not allow blai tant emotion of one side of society at the cost of the other. it is designed to permit an individual to flourish in business with minimal government intervention. over here, the city is fully

involved in pitching one side against the other. my question is, as a city of san francisco willing to breach the basic standards of free enterprise and fair play? >> the city has not conducted any economic survey to the state. to assess the impact that these are likely to have on existing businesses and we are talking about the people's livelihoods to be impacted. and in fact, the applicant, nor any city official can stand here and state that such a facility is not going to impact any existing business at all. and if so, why are we all standing here. please consider these matters, realistickly and i humblely ask this board to permanently

revoke both of these permits. >> thank you. >> next speaker. >> good evening. my name is trevor arnorld, a work a half a block away from the location. i just want to say that i think that it is very convenient for me to be able to pick up a coffee on a street on the way to the office, there actually happens to be a starbucks on the ground floor where there is typically three or four people as late at 9:00 in the morning which is close to where they are closed for business. so clearly there is not a very significant impact there. this often there is quite a long wait for a cup of coffee and other food products there. i felt that they are organized and very clean at that location. that egress is blocked in the alley and people are very polite and no more than 3 or 4

folks cued up. i don't see how this additional choice of a fine cup of coffee is going to have a detrimental impact to established brick and mortar businesses in the neighborhood. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker, please? >> good evening. my name is paul ionion and i was also here months ago as an appellant and i am kind of dumb founded that we have to come back here again to deal with the same matter all over again. i own a deli, on california street for the last 35 years. and i have never had to work harder or longer hours to maintain my position and care for my family and be able to pay my rent on time. and last time it was that we fought two trucks and now it is for espresso.

i open 5:00 in the morning and my coffee hours are the same as his proposed hours. i sell coffee for basically 4 hours also from 6 to 10 and a switch over to lunch and catering to be able to survive in the high rent district. i cannot be that i can compete with starbucks or peats. there is a peats across the street and a starbucks down the street and around the corner from me. but my position as well as most of our colleagues position is that we are small operators. we work hard. 35 years of survival having four land lords in the same location, having excuse me, up to them to maintain the rent structure to be able to stay there. we had to sell coffee, we have to sell muffins and catering and all of them, the trucks, espresso specialized different foods are taking away every day from nickel and dime from all

of us. you know, i cannot comprehend how these permits have been issued where they did not exist many, many years ago, it was done right years ago. they are given to the areas where there is a need. around hospitals and schools and construction areas, where or weekends, or you know, where there is the public and yet all of the places are closed. or there is not enough of them. but you come down in the financial district, and our hours are the same, and it does not draw people for retail, because we are just people working in their offices. whereas the last time i remember that we combated people that said, while diversity brings more people to the area. it does not in our area. our area being i am close to 150 california street. i am a half a block away from there, my address is 18 california street. pete' starbucks, tons of place and multiple places all over the place and to be able to exist further and to continue

to make a living, i mean, this has to come to an end, i appeal also to you guys, to, you know, let us have the comfort of competing with one another, in a fair, manner, rather than food trucks with just one permit a year needed to be paid for rather than having to comply with handicapped bathroom and license and taxes. my building taxes alone raised to ten fold. because you know the building just sold for 16 million. when i went in it was 2 million in value and the ground floor operators came down with the rent. >> thank you, your time is up. >> next speaker, please. >> hello, i too am here again, a lot of time that i spent on working on this issue before and we actually won a couple of

permits that were not issued. >> this is a really big topic, not only in san francisco but across the united states and the business owners that pay money for the brick and mortar are up in arms. this is portland, chicago, new york, and i understand that the food truck operator actually lives in berkeley. berkeley does not allow food trucks. they are actually trucking the food in, and trucking the money out. san francisco is not gaining any tax dollars or the magnitude of the money, that is lost by the city sales on brick and mortar are going to go down. this is lut ris that this is happening in the financial

district. i am, personally not against food trucks, bring them to the construction sites. one of the speakers that i had last night was sky line construction. they paid thousands of dollars in construction parking permits. they are pulling cars up and staying there for two hours and then the truck pulls up and it is almost like a sweeper, you know, when it is in the neighborhood, somebody puts the car and they wait for it to come and the same thing, the people are fighting, i know that people are fighting over this. the other thing on the second street issue, there is currently a huge construction going on. it is going on for a month.

all the way down second street. no construction, this is an example of a construction truck right in front of harvison row. blocking, i mean this is not as big as a food truck. sidewalk issue. >> the other thing that i want to say is last year the food truck operators realized that they had a problem and they started all of this press started, negativety. eating into business profits they are trucking the food in and trucking the money out. the city is losing money. coffee, is coffee. hamburger is hamburger, and a milk shake is a milk shake. thank you for your time. >> do you care to state your

name for the record? >> karin smith. >> thank you. >> the next speaker, please? >> hello, my name is hillary cronenberg and i am a san francisco resident and i also work in the area. i happen to think a little differently than what has been going on here. i think that if i were to come to where the coffee truck would be, i would be eye opened into other restaurants, and places that i had never been before. because i am here checking out the coffee shop. so i might as well grab some lunch or bring a girlfriend back here next time. i also agree that it is very convenient with the amount of commerce that is in the area. that we have more selection,

and i just think that it helps the businesses and doesn't hurt them. and i urge you to up hold the permits. thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker, please? >> >> my name is marcus millions and a works at the mall and i car pool and i come to howard and freemont street. and just i don't drink coffee often, but the days that where i am kind of sluggish it is kind of convenient having a truck there as opposed to going to a starbucks or petes. i have never noticed these other businesses but as the last speaker said, if i came to the coffee truck, and i noticed them, there would be a time where i might come back. i also feel that times have

changed and that i understand these people pay a lot of money for their rent and stuff like that. but they have to adjust to times and new things that are going on. and i urge you guys to up hold the permits. thank you. >> thank you. >> next, speaker, please? >> good evening, commissioners, or i should say good night. >> i am ken clevlan with the property owners association of the public policy. >> i think that you heard a lot of the arguments why these two permits should be revoked. even the department itself admits that it has been, or it has too much discretion in granting this permit for this espresso carts. we have got to look at the larger picture. the larger picture is that we

have to protect our tenants and they are facing an onslot of out of town, food trucks coming in in a downtown area which is very densely populated with restaurants, cafes, coffee shops and sandwich shots that are currently there and the city was allowing them through legislation is that was passed a couple of years ago to come in poach, our customers and putting them in harms way. do we want to see more empty food fronts? i think that we need to look at this and these two permits in particular this is symptom mat i can of our problem. >> the police department have a pedaler permit. they require them that is going

to sell similar, that is similar to a store to be 600 feet apart. yet we have passed a law that allows you 50 feet. they are thinking about reducing that to 50 feet. we love you small business mobile food truck operators and we don't care about you, brick and mortar, cafe, and coffee shops. we ask you to over turn the decision, it was unwise, they have the discretion, but it was unwise, there is plenty of opportunities for coffee service in that 300 feet and this is just not right. it is unfair to our small businesses that have been here in many cases many years, employing people, paying taxes, have been the back bone of the local communities and this problem is not just in downtown it is going to eminate

throughout the city and many of the commercial corridors will be affected. i think that you should over turn the decision and i think that it was unwise and certainly unfair. >> thank you. >> next speaker, please? >> hello, i am benjamin miller and i am a resident of san francisco. for several years i worked at 55 second street, before i went to 50 california actually. the same building as harvest and row. i was on the 18th floor. almost every day, i had my espresso from harvest and row. there were never a shortage of many choices of wonderful restaurant and place to buy espresso or any type of coffee. i unfortunately work at 781 lincoln and we would like to have a food truck and an espresso truck up there.

i am also a retail analyst and i have heard a lot of things tonight and i really appreciate mr. gold berg has done his due diligence because second street is really a go-to destination for food because the folks have made it a wonderful place and it seems very obvious to me that the same rent needs to be charge to foot operators if they are going to compete on an equal basis with these folks that very worked very hard to build a retail base and very faithful customers. so i would like to just, reiterate on behalf of these wonderful restaurants that have worked very hard to build up a customer base that it looks obvious that these guys want to just park out in front and it seems a little unfair. and i think that is the gist that we have heard from several

folks. there are plenty of place to get coffee. >> thank you. >> next, speaker, please? >> hello, good evening commissioners, i am jeff hilgore and i am a resident here in san francisco. i have done a great deal of canvassing and political organizing here in the bay area and that involves a great deal of sidewalk street work and regardless of what the issue was whether it was a disaster relief charity or a homeless assistance, political, nobody wanted me in front of their business. there was not a competition, something that i tried to explain, to someone, looking for a monthly donation for a charity is not going to deter someone from going in and buying a piece of fruit. but it is very easy to understand why your business is not necessarily flourishing for whatever reason you start aiming at that is the reason and that is the reason. from what i understand, the

permit requires, alteration and you are not allowed to be in the same spot the entire time. so this perceived threat is only going on for a max, from the graph that i saw two hours a day and several days a week and what we are talking about is one espresso machine. the food truck, it is a coffee truck. like items, this is a very specific type of coffee service. this is street, grab and go, and i myself, when i am in the san francisco downtown area i am on my bike and i am in a hurry, i can't lock the bike and find a place to put it and go through a lot of steps that are required to getting my hands on what i want if i am down there all day and i am going to plug in the lap top and i am going to sit down and eat a breakfast. places like starbucks don't sell the same thing. there are a million reasons that you go in a starbucks than to just get a cup of coffee.

there are a number of days that i did not have time to wait that line is too long. if you look around and you see a line of five or ten people at every business you are out of luck. to me adding one more machine two days a week and overlapping two hours a day, operating hours, if this were me, i would be very, i would feel very complimented that my just the notion of me doing business, anywhere near this area is such a threat. i can't understand how this is directed to the operator of a food truck, most of the concerns that have been addressed are to the pressures that are already there, than involve doing business. if one straw will break the camel's back it seems that there are a lot of other things that are hampering the

performance of that camel and maybe you should look at that and hopefully you will up hold the permit. thank you. >> thank you. >> pe tricia veloy. i have been a part of many neighbors throughout the city. first of all something that you have not been told they have a private permit, and at first admission. going to second emission in california, looked to me like predatory practices. number two, these are the drawings that were presented to the department. can you see this? no mention of the other facilities that sold coffee. they basically said, we want to be here. and didn't mention it. i concerned this as being fraud on the city. food trucks, i firmly believe are a necessity in different

places. my question is, is, do you want small business or do you want food trucks. >> we just lost another business to land lords raised the rent from $4500 to $6,000. all throughout the whole city, we are losing jobs, right and left because of high rents, high fees from the city. $9300 for a year, verses $1,000 of fees, requiring to build 30 to 40,000 dollar ada bathrooms. it is not fair. and because they have one a block away now they want two more, this is predatory, this is going to expand to china town. it is going to expand to all other places in this city.

and i'm already seeing them beginning to try to line up on lumbard but i called immediately. and we need to have controls over this industry. the prices are not less. but what you are really doing by allowing this predatory practices and this is what you will hear from me about, is we are losing jobs. you keep talking about jobs, making jobs, well, we are losing them because of this type of practice. and a lot more than a couple of people working in a food truck, back of these kitchens there are three, four are five people cutting, preparing the coffee, grinding the beans, trying to in many of these businesses are down to nothing. with their back lot because of the permit, the permit prices

and the san francisco, i think, sabotage on the small business which is the crutch of this city. you have your choice, small business, or coffee trucks thank you. >> is there any other public comment? >> okay. seeing none, we will move into rebuttal. mr. walsh? >> you have three minutes. >> i think that we have basically carved out our agreement and disagreements. the issue of the 6 to 10 is crucial because the high profit item which earlier speaker referred to is the coffee and if you are not turning that over, seeing that you are losing it. i want to add that those sellers not being able to

speak, they closed one of their three restaurants in the city in october, letting go of ten employees. going forward, she is no longer planning and they came and chose san francisco out of new york and chicago, at the time that they signed up for ten-year leases and their business plan in spite of the horrible economic issues of the last ten years >> she is not looking to expand and she is going to look elsewhere. and most of the kind of decisions that people have the opportunity to get up and move their capitol and their employment opportunities are making and that is the same with the bagel place, they moved out of town. and they are looking to expand, no more here. so it is quiet. you know, you don't know your audience is left because you

can't hear them going out the back door. >> that is what is happening, you will not measure that until the rent starts going down and the building owners start screaming. >> that is the bright side. i don't know. where we are going from here. thank you for your attention. >> thank you. >> i would like to just talk a little bit and first i am going to put down a map at where certain people were and restaurants were in the location, the proposed truck. this shows a 300 foot radius which is not the same as walking but it gives an idea of where the restaurants are and if there is a way to make it bigger. there is starbucks at 300 and muffins which inside or

outside, i can't tell. the current policy is to allow the food trucks if such food trucks complied with all of the provisions of the code. and with the gpw's guidelines and were willing to run the risk of things like if they drive up in the morning in their parking space is blocked, that is too bad. they have to leave and construction f there is a construction, you know, activity there they have to go. and they have to pay for all kinds of permits and inspections as well. and mr. goldstein has complied with all of the code and guidelines and provisions including the example given in the guidelines. it is hard to think of an example that would be more pertinent to this particular matter, a coffee, truck or a coffee sale is not the same as a dine , or someone who has a full menu. there were very few sites, he applied to the only sites that

he could find in the entire district that would not require or in cringe on any code or guideline requirement. we don't feel that this appeal or this permit would be opening the flood gates to a huge number of permits. this is something that he and his reliance on the city policy as it stands now. did apply for and received. there was a mention of the second coffee truck, he does have a coffee truck currently not far away, he invested financial sums as part of his permit process for the last 14 months. it is not two additional trucks, it is one truck that would go between two locations. so he would be on the street for a total of 12 hours a week and he would be on front street or in front of 150 california for a total of 8 hours a week. there are one other thing that i wanted to talk about is how

people tend to go to coffee that is closer to them. there are a lot of commuter spots. he is not likely to draw people from the vast distances who are going to go past tons and tons stores just to go to his truck, it is something, there is enough market for somebody. with the current policy and we realize that we ask for you to up hold the permit. thank you. >> the counselor, the permit holder owns two trucks but only has one location that is not appealed. >> there is one on a private right-of-way and not subject to these rules. that is a truck that is he planning to move to these new locations he is in the process of permitting a second truck, if it comes through he will use it on the old location.